Who: Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), City of Minneapolis Department of Community and Economic Development (CPED)

Contact: Kris Nelson, Community Programs Director, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (612-625-1020, ksn@umn.edu); or Bob Cooper, Senior NRP/Citizen Participation Specialist, City of Minneapolis (612-673-5239, bob.cooper@ci.minneapolis.mn.us)

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (1/4/2007) — Seven Minneapolis neighborhood groups were awarded Bridging Communities grants to reach out to new immigrants and residents who don’t speak English. The University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) administers the grants, which are funded by the City of Minneapolis’ Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED). Funds will support a broad range of approaches for bringing people together.

Neighborhood organizations under contract with the City’s Citizen Participation Program or Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) were eligible to apply for funding. Program guidelines are available on the CURA website at www.cura.umn.edu/Immigrants.php.

For more information please contact Kris Nelson, community programs director at CURA (612-625-1020, ksn@umn.edu), or Bob Cooper, the City's senior NRP/Citizen Participation specialist (612-673-5239, bob.cooper@ci.minneapolis.mn.us).

The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) is an all-University applied research and technical assistance center that helps the University of Minnesota fulfill its land grant and urban missions by connecting faculty and student researchers with nonprofit organizations, businesses, neighborhoods, local governments, and state agencies in Minnesota. CURA is on the web at www.cura.umn.edu.

Grant Winners

West Bank Community Coalition (WBCC)—Project Open Door ($5,000), an education and outreach effort to develop relationships between WBCC and the leadership of immigrant communities in order to create a welcoming organization, inform people about the opportunity for citizen participation, and hear from immigrant groups about the barriers they see to their own involvement.

Cleveland Neighborhood Association(CNA)—Hmong Thai Organizing Project ($5,000), a project that aims to fight crime and reduce fear of crime among Hmong Thai residents, connect Hmong Thai families with their neighbors and get Hmong Thai families actively involved with the CNA and with neighborhood and anti-crime initiatives. It also aims to help CNA learn about Hmong concerns and then help Hmong residents organize with their Cleveland neighbors to deal with concerns. 

Lyndale Neighborhood Association/Whittier Alliance/Stevens Square Community Organization—Nicollet Avenue Business Organizing Project ($5,000), a new initiative to work with small-business owners along the Nicollet Avenue corridor—65 percent of whom are immigrants and non-English speakers—to address common challenges and concerns and to build a stronger partnership among businesses and among businesses, neighborhood organizations and business associations.

Sheridan Neighborhood Organization—Shooting Stars ($5,000), a project to train 9- to 18-year-olds with an emphasis on Somali, Hmong and Ecuadorian students, to use digital cameras and editing software and give them access to cameras to take pictures of family, friends, community activities and their neighborhood. Participants will choose images for “slide shows” of their work, and participants’ work will be selected by a panel of local gallery owners and partner organization representatives for a still photograph show, presented in several venues. Participants will also select their favorite photos for the show.

Harrison Neighborhood Association(HNA)—Harrison Organizing for Peace and Equity Initiative ($5,000), an even mix of community capacity building and community-driven action to bring about equitable development of the area. The HNA will work with the Southeast Asian Community Council, the Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota and the People’s Institute to involve Lao and Hmong families in the redevelopment of the Bassett Creek Valley.

Longfellow Community Council—Latinos en Acción ($4,000), an initiative of the Longfellow Community Council, Corcoran Neighborhood Organization, Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association and the Resource Center of the Americas to represent the views of Latino community members in their workplaces and to promote leadership development and engagement at the neighborhood level. Latinos En Acción presents a model for the blending of community-based and culture-based organizing.

Seward Neighborhood Group—Seward Wellness Project ($3,000), a project to address health literacy issues within the immigrant community in Seward. Through their work with a group of East African women and youths, Seward activists have uncovered a very important issue – that of health literacy and awareness issues in the East African community. The Seward Wellness Project will create “doctor’s bureaus” to address several key issues identified by East African community members.